Went to the Apple store yesterday. Boy, is that place dangerous! So much cool stuff. I always want to get one of each… They were still out of the new iPod shuffles. Turns out they have a waiting list! Sheesh. Anyway, I picked up the new iLife suite. Hopefully I will have a better time of upgrading it this time around. I’m excited about the new iPhoto books and the fact that I can now import my digital camera’s movie files into the program. Yay! I wish iWorks had been a part of this software suite, instead of it being bundled with Keynote. Seems like a weird decision on Apple’s part, but I suppose they will sell a heck of a lot more Keynotes this way! iWorks looks pretty cool, hopefully it’s worth the cash. I’m totally over AppleWorks and I don’t like the idea of using Word. Macentric, I know!
Category Archives: Blog
Anji LIVE on Chillcuts Sunday
Just thought I’d mention that I’m going live on Chillcuts Radio this Sunday to premier a brand new feature with one of my favorite bands, Sunburn in Cyprus. I will be talking with band founder, Ulli Conrad, as I preview their new album. The feature will run twice, the first time at 4pm PST and then again at 6pm, with me deejaying a chilled selection of independent and indie label electronica bands in between. I may log in a little earlier for a set beforehand, too…
Tune in to listen directly via live365 or through the “listen” link at chillcuts.com. If you’re on MySpace, please join our Chillcuts Group to comment on the station, recommend music or just chit chat!
Cool Chicago Album
If you happen to be into groovy jazzy pop songs like I am, especially those with an early 1970’s vibe with lots of sweet rhodes keyboards, I’ve recently found an unlikely winner. It’s from the band Chicago and it’s their Chicago 7 album. It’s nothing like the rock pop ballad stuff that they became known for later in their career. On this album their jazz and rock backgrounds blend perfectly making for some great songs and songwriting. “Happy Man” is my favorite song along with “Wishing You Were Here,” which have both been stuck in my head for close to a week now. I strangely had the album sitting around my collection since I was a kid in 70’s but never really listened to it until just recently; it’s some weird luck that I’ve managed to keep it all this time. I kind of laugh know realizing I’ve had this great record sitting in my collection all this time and never knew how great it was.
New Year's Resolutions
Here we are on the first Monday of the new year. Hurrah! The band’s resolution for the year is to release our new album and to set that whole whirlwind of promotion in motion. Part of that will likely include our first practice with a live bassist and drummer. So I guess that’s 2 resolutions: 1. release album, 2. practice with live rhythm section. I ‘spose that would lead to 3. set up live shows. Sounds like a full year in and of itself, doesn’t it?
Lovespirals 2005 Biography
It’s a new year, we’re working on a new album; time to release a new band bio!
Lovespirals began in 1999 as an outgrowth of multi-instrumentalist Ryan Lum’s previous band incarnation, Love Spirals Downwards. Following the release of his 10,000+ selling electronica/ethereal rock hybrid album, Flux, Lum began working as a DJ and dance track producer, collaborating with vocalist Anji Bee, and the members of Subliminal Records duo, Monkey Bars, Doron Orenstein and Gabriel D. Vine.
By 2001, Lovespirals had released a number of tracks on various artist compilations, including Chill Out in the City and Chill Out Lounge Vol. 2 on Water Music Records, and a remix of Claire Voyant for their album Time Again on Metropolis Records in the US and Accession Records in Europe. 2002 brought the release of Lovespirals’ first full-length album, Windblown Kiss, on New York indie label, Projekt Records, as well as tracks on Hot Topic and Border’s various artists’ compilations.
Over time, Lovespirals have evolved from a dance sound to a more pop sound, highlighting Bee’s versatile vocal work and Lum’s mastery of guitar. From track to track, and even within each tune itself, the duo culls their favorite aspects of every genre – those most beautiful, haunting, or groovy – to create a unique hybrid of electronica, soul, jazz, blues, and pop, with dashes of world, folk, and rock… or whatever else tickles their fancy.
Lovespirals have performed all across North America with a semi-live set featuring guitar, sax, and vocals over a backing track on laptop. Lum as also appeared in Los Angeles and San Francisco clubs with traditional DJ sets, often including dub plates of their material.
If you are seeking music for the soul as well as the body, something sweet to kick back and unwind with, then Lovespirals are for you.
Happy New Year and New Year's Eve
It’s Ryan here wishing everyone a happy 2005. I’m going to spend the new year’s eve on the mellow tip with Anji and listen to my new copy of the recently remastered Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. I checked out a minute or so of it yesterday and thought it sounded wonderful. I can’t wait to hear the entire cd tonight. I also have The Endless Summer DVD, from 1966, which I’ve always wanted to see. So it looks like I’ll be going back to the 60’s and early 70’s this new year’s eve.
Relax was, well, relaxing!
Sunday night over at the Kitsch was pretty mellow and fun. The bar has a nice vibe and nobody ever gives attitude, which is great. It was my first time DJing to a live club audience, even though I’ve been a radio DJ for years, so I was a little bit nervous. Once I got going though, I was totally in the groove. It was fun mixing from old school jazz to new school downtempo, then into classic soul and on into contemporary deep house. Its always great to hear your favorite tunes blasting on a good sound system, too. I was particularly grooving to Diana Ross’ “Brown Baby.” Anyway, Kristina B. was way into both of our sets and said we were welcome back “anytime” so I’m sure we’ll set another date early next year, for those who were too busy with holiday plans to make it out this time!
E-mail List Elves
It’s great that the site has been redesigned so that the email list automatically updates itself when people join. Just about every day since the change, someone has joined. Even still, there are hundreds of folks on the old email list that I’m making sure don’t get left behind.
I think I’ve recreated our email list probably a half dozen times since I joined the band in 1999. I’ve done it so many times before that I feel like I’ve memorized some of these people’s contact info, even though I don’t know them personally.
Last night I was fricken dreaming that I was updating the email list… If only I had woken up to find that little elves had done all the work for me!
new goodies from the apple store
today, i finally bought a new battery to replace the old one i had for a couple of years in my ibook. before today, i was down to around 2 minutes of battery life before my computer would go to sleep. not really all that useful or portable, since i always needed to be connected to an electrical outlet. not the best use of a wireless internet connection, always forced to sit in the same spot.
anji got a new computer keyboard to replace her previous one that a cat vomited on, causing the bottom row of keys to no longer work. so $190 later, we’re back to where we were before our respective items became unusable.
anyone want a battery with 2 minute of useful life? how about a keyboard with one missing row of keys?
Looking Goo-ood!
Man, the site is looking awfully sharp if I do say so, myself! After a heavy 2 days of geeking out, everything has come together just as we envisioned. We really needed a good first page, but when we first changed the site over, we still weren’t sure what we wanted. Now we’ve got a pretty nice balance of image and content, with an emphasis on all the basic things any first time or returning visitor would want to find. We even have a link to the previous incarnation of the band, to make it easier on old folks looking up the band for the first time in a decade. 😉
Always evolving
Looks like we updated the site yet again! Seems like there’s always something new we want to try out. Sometimes we bring back something old that we miss, but with a new twist — like this blog! Now ya’ll can comment on things, if you feel so inclined. We’re still in need of some new band photos, as Ryan and I look quite a bit different than we did back in the Windblown Kiss period, but it looks like we’ll be hooking up with our favorite photographer, Susan Jennings, early next year. It’s not as far away as it sounds…
Ryan and I have already made a New Year’s resolution to stay in better communication with our fans, and part of that will be accomplished by sending out newsletters more often. We get people signing up to the newslist every week, but it’s been months since I’ve sent one and I do feel a little bit bad.
We’ve also set up an RSS feed of our news page, and I think we’ll have one of the journal soon, too. Looks like we haven’t added that link to the site yet, though. I’ll have to pester our code monkey. Heh heh…
Lovespirals 2004 Biography/Discography
We’ve been sending out demos of some of our new dance and downtempo tracks to various labels, just to see if there’s any interest for compilations, singles, or even a full album. This is the latest bio to go along with the the tracks:
Since 1999, producer/musician Ryan Lum and singer/songwriter, Anji Bee have made an unlikely marriage of dusty vinyl classics to sparkling new CDs, informed by a lingering affair with Jazz. Familiar, yet exotic, the sounds and styles of this creative duo guide modern electronic composition in a more organic direction, forsaking simplistic sample loop based production in favor of traditional song writing and performance.
The interplay of Bee’s sensual vocals and Lum’s emotive guitar playing – given equal importance with the beats — illustrate their love of melody in song craft; something all too often missing in electronica music. From track to track, and even within each tune itself, the duo culls their favorite aspects of music past and present – those most beautiful, soulful, haunting, or groovy – to create their own unique flavor; fresh and tasty.
Lum and Bee, working under the moniker, Lovespirals, have released various compilation tracks, downloadable singles, and even an album, Windblown Kiss (for indie Projekt Records), and have also performed all across North America with a semi-live set featuring guitar, sax, and vocals over a backing track on laptop. Lum has also appeared in Los Angeles and San Francisco clubs with traditional DJ sets, often including dub plates of their material.
If you are seeking music for the mind and soul, as well as the body, then Lovespirals are for you.
And while I’m at it, here’s our current discography:
DISCOGRAPHY:
(2000) Claire Voyant – Time Again – Metropolis Records “Bittersweet (LSD Mix)”
(2001) V/A – Chill Out in the City – Water Music Records “Beatitude”
(2001) V/A – Chill-Out Lounge v. 2 – Water Music Records “Hand in Hand (Radio Edit)”
(2001) Lovespirals – Ecstatic EP – MP3.com
(2001) V/A – Excelsis v.3: A Prelude – Projekt Records “Aspenglow”
(2002) V/A – Mondisk: A Celebration of 13 Years – Monitor Records “Hand in Hand”
(2002) Lovespirals – Windblown Kiss – Projekt Records
(2002) V/A – The Arbitrary Width of Shadows– – Hot Topic “Dejame”
(2002) V/A – A Dark Noel – Hot Topic “Aspenglow”